The article summarises the evolution of the Italian school of public finance, highlighting those themes that most attracted James Buchanan's interest. It considers such topics as the operations of the fiscal authorities, the Leviatan monopolist, financial delusion, public debt theory, and the...

Contribution to a series of recollections and reflections on professional experiences of distinguished economists. Article originally published in vol. 39 n. 159 of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review.

We develop a public choice model of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in which credit and conditionality are simultaneously determined by the demand for, and supply of, IMF credit. A graphical analysis illustrates the comparative statics in response to various shocks. We apply the model to...

This paper mainly aims to clarify the ways in which fiscal policy measures can influence the economy, with reference to two popular theories: rational expectation and public choice. These theories present particular issues, born on the Keynesian theory background and explain the cause and effect...

The article deals with the evolution of approaches in modern economic theory to the problem of “failures of the state”. This approach, which has developed in opposition to concepts of “market failure”, can be seen as a search for a new strategy of political and economic analysis of...

Based on some national and international studies and researches, this article aims to demonstrate that the level of social polarisation in Romania is a result of political will. Focusing on the study of the domestic tax policy, the authors asks a few questions, the answer of which may lead to...

A binary win/loss model is constructed and estimated on the results from 1990-2004 contests for open U.S. House seats. The results indicate that election outcomes are highly sensitive to the major-party candidates' campaign spending ratios, and increases in spending ratios are shown to translate...

Public choice is one of the few examples of a “creative community” emerging from within the professional academic structures of economics in the postwar period. This article examines the early development of the public choice movement at the University of Virginia and how this movement both...

The constitutional political economy research program established by Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan provides a rigorous analytical framework for the analysis of constitutional choice. I focus on two issues that have received only limited attention in the CPE literature: the problem of...

This paper uses a simple dynamic model where a government performs three functions: taxation, public spending and contract enforcement to study pathologies in resource allocation by government. A key feature of the approach is that states may invest in their future capacities to raise taxes and...